Andreu Carlos M, López-Hazas Ana, Merino Sonia, Vázquez Ester, Dura Oscar J
Instituto Regional de Investigación Científica Aplicada (IRICA), Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real E-13071, Spain.
Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologías Químicas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real E-13071, Spain.
ACS Appl Energy Mater. 2025 Jan 8;8(2):1342-1348. doi: 10.1021/acsaem.4c02835. eCollection 2025 Jan 27.
Thermoelectric hydrogels have the potential to be used in energy conversion devices for harnessing ubiquitous low-grade heat and generating useful electricity. This can be achieved through the use of thermogalvanic cells based on redox chemistry. While significant attention has been focused toward maximizing voltage for a given temperature gradient in liquid-based thermocells, it is crucial to consider both voltage and current density for accurate power output estimation in the case of gel-based thermocells. Here, we analyze the influence of the functional groups and the redox pair concentration over the voltage and current density in two different hydrogels. Our results confirm a path to enhance the current density in thermogalvanic hydrogels by incorporating a cationic pair into a cationic electroactive network (CN). This approach facilitates the movement of redox pairs, therefore increasing the power density output.
热电水凝胶有潜力用于能量转换装置，以利用无处不在的低品位热量并产生有用的电力。这可以通过使用基于氧化还原化学的热电池来实现。虽然在基于液体的热电池中，为了在给定温度梯度下最大化电压已经受到了极大关注，但对于基于凝胶的热电池，为了准确估计功率输出，同时考虑电压和电流密度至关重要。在这里，我们分析了两种不同水凝胶中官能团和氧化还原对浓度对电压和电流密度的影响。我们的结果证实了一种通过将阳离子对纳入阳离子电活性网络（CN）来提高热电流水凝胶中电流密度的途径。这种方法促进了氧化还原对的移动，从而提高了功率密度输出。
